• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.365-381
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• 2013

In this paper, a numerical simulation study was conducted on the seismic behavior and ductility demand of single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems with partially self-centering hysteresis. Unlike fully self-centering systems, partially self-centering systems display noticeable residual displacement after unloading is completed. Such partially self-centering behavior has been observed in a number of recently researched self-centering structural systems with energy dissipation devices. It is thus of interest to examine the seismic performance such as ductility demand of partially self-centering systems. In this study, a modified flag-shaped hysteresis model with residual displacement is proposed to represent the hysteretic behavior of partially self-centering structural systems. A parametric study considering the effect of variations in post-yield stiffness ratio, energy dissipation coefficient, and residual displacement ratio on the displacement ductility demand of partially self-centering systems was conducted using a suite of 192 scaled ground motions. The results of this parametric study reveal that increasing the post-yield stiffness, energy dissipation coefficient or residual displacement ratio of the partially self-centering systems generally leads to reduced ductility demand, especially for systems with lower yield strength.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.101-112
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• 1999

Structural walls have been mostly used for the design of reinforced concrete buildings in seismic areas because they play a role as an efficient bracing system and offer great potential for lateral load resistance and drift control. The lateral resistance system for the earthquake load should be designed to have enough ductility and stable hysteretic response in the critical regions where plastic deformation occurred beyond yielding. The behavior of the reinforced concrete element to experience large deformation in the critical areas by a major earthquake is affected by the performance of the confined core concrete. Thus, the confinement of concrete by suitable arrangements of transverse reinforcement results in a significant increase in both the strength and ductility of compressed concrete. This paper reports the experimental results of reinforced concrete structural walls for wall-type apartment structure under axial loads and cyclic reversal of lateral loads with different confinement of the boundary elements. The results show that confinement of the boundary element by open 'U'-bar and cross tie is effective. The shear strength capacity is not increased by the confinement but deformation capacity is improve.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.240-249
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• 2008

This paper presents an electromagnetic design method for magneto-rheological (MR) valves. Since the apparent viscosity of MR fluids is adjusted by applying magnetic fields, the MR valves can control high-level fluid power without any mechanical moving parts. In order to improve the performances of the MR valve, it is important that the magnetic field is effectively supplied to the MR fluid. For the purpose, the magnetic circuit composed with the yoke for forming magnetic flux path, the electromagnetic coil and the MR fluid should be well designed. In order to improve the static characteristic of the MR valve, the length of the magnetic flux path is decreased by removing the unnecessary bulk of the yoke. Also, in order to improve its dynamic and hysteretic characteristics, the magnetic reluctance of the magnetic circuit should be increased by minimizing the cross-sectional area of the yoke through which the magnetic flux passes. After two MR valves, one is a conventional type valve and the other is the proposed one, are designed and fabricated, their performances are evaluated experimentally.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.701-721
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• 2016

Base isolation is a well-established passive strategy for seismic response control of buildings. In this paper, an efficient framework is proposed for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) of isolated buildings subjected to uncertain earthquakes. The framework uses reduced function evaluations method, as an efficient tool for structural reliability analysis, and an efficient optimization algorithm for optimal structural design. The probability of failure is calculated considering excessive base displacement, superstructure inter-storey drifts, member stress ratios and absolute accelerations of floors of the isolated building as failure events. The behavior of rubber bearing isolators is modeled using nonlinear hysteretic model and the variability of future earthquakes is modeled by applying a probabilistic approach. The effects of pulse component of stochastic near-fault ground motions, fixity-factor of semi-rigid beam-to-column connections, values of isolator parameters, earthquake magnitude and epicentral distance on the performance and safety of semi-rigidly connected base-isolated steel framed buildings are studied. Suitable RBDO examples are solved to illustrate the results of investigations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.357-377
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• 2013

In order to study the degradation and damage behaviors of steel frame welded connections, two series of tests in references with different connection constructions were carried out subjected to various cyclic loading patterns. Hysteretic curves, degradation and damage behaviours and fatigue properties of specimens were firstly studied. Typical failure modes and probable damage reasons were discussed. Then, various damage index models with variables of dissipative energy, cumulative displacement and combined energy and displacement were summarized and applied for all experimental specimens. The damage developing curves of ten damage index models for each connection were obtained. Finally, the predicted and evaluated capacities of damage index models were compared in order to describe the degraded performance and failure modes. The characteristics of each damage index model were discussed in depth, and then their distributive laws were summarized. The tests and analysis results showed that the loading histories significantly affected the distributive shapes of damage index models. Different models had their own ranges of application. The selected parameters of damage index models had great effect on the developing trends of damage curves. The model with only displacement variable was recommended because of a more simple form and no integral calculation, which was easier to be formulated and embedded in application programs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.439-452
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• 2018

This paper presents experimental and numerical study on buckling behaviors and hysteretic performance of Class 1 H-shaped steel beam subjected to cyclic pure bending within the scope of ultra-low cycle fatigue (ULCF). A loading device was designed to achieve the pure bending loading condition and 4 H-shaped specimens with a small width-to-thickness ratio were tested under 4 different loading histories. The emphasis of this work is on the impacts induced by local buckling and subsequent ductile fracture. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the specimen failure is mainly induced by elasto-plastic local buckling, and is closely correlated with the plastic straining history. Compared with monotonic loading, the elasto-plastic local buckling can occur at a much smaller displacement amplitude due to a number of preceding plastic reversals with relative small strain amplitudes, which is mainly correlated with decreasing tangent modulus of the material under cyclic straining. Ductile fracture is found to be a secondary factor leading to deterioration of the load-carrying capacity. In addition, a new ULCF life evaluation method is proposed for the specimens using the concept of energy decomposition, where the cumulative plastic energy is classified into two categories as isotropic hardening and kinematic hardening correlated. A linear correlation between the two energies is found and formulated, which compares well with the experimental results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2017

It has been observed in the past that, the reinforced concrete (RC) bridge columns are very often subjected to torsional moment in addition to flexure and shear during seismic vibration. Ignoring torsion in the design can trigger unexpected shear failure of the columns (Farhey et al. 1993). Performance based seismic design is a popular design philosophy which calls for accurate prediction of the hysteresis behavior of structural elements to ensure safe and economical design under earthquake loading. However, very few investigations in the past focused on the development of analytical models to accurately predict the response of RC members under cyclic torsion. Previously developed hysteresis models are not readily applicable for torsional loading owing to significant pinching and stiffness degradation associated with torsion (Wang et al. 2014). The present study proposes an improved polygonal hysteresis model which can accurately predict the hysteretic behavior of RC circular and square columns under torsion. The primary curve is obtained from mechanics based softened truss model for torsion. The proposed model is validated with test data of two circular and two square columns. A good correlation is observed between the predicted and measured torque-twist behavior and dissipated energy.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.295-306
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• 2018

Reinforced concrete containment (RCC) building has long been considered as the last barrier for keeping the radiation from leaking into the environment. It is important to quantify the performance of these structures and facilities considering extreme conditions. However, the preceding research on evaluating nuclear power plant (NPP) structures, particularly considering mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences, is deficient. Therefore, this manuscript serves to investigate the seismic fragility of a typical RCC building subjected to mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. The implementation of the fragility assessment has been performed based on the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method. A lumped mass RCC model considering the tri-linear skeleton curve and the maximum point-oriented hysteretic rule is employed for IDA analyses. The results indicate that the seismic capacity of the RCC building would be overestimated without taking into account the mainshock-aftershock effects. It is also found that the seismic capacity of the RCC building decreases with the increase of the relative intensity of aftershock ground motions to mainshock ground motions. In addition, the effects of artificial mainshock-aftershock ground motions generated from the repeated and randomized approaches and the polarity of the aftershock with respect to the mainshock on the evaluation of the RCC are also researched, respectively.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.319-334
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• 2018

In this paper, an analytical study was carried out to propose an optimum base-isolated system for the design of steel structures equipped with lead rubber bearings (LRB). For this, 5 and 10-storey steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) were designed as Special Moment Frame (SMF). These two-dimensional and three-bay frames equipped with a set of isolation systems within a predefined range that minimizes the response of the base-isolated frames subjected to a series of earthquakes. In the design of LRB, two main parameters, namely, isolation period (T) and the ratio of strength to weight (Q/W) supported by isolators were considered as 2.25, 2.5, 2.75 and 3 s, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15, respectively. The Force-deformation behavior of the isolators was modelled by the bi-linear behavior which could reflect the nonlinear characteristics of the lead-plug bearings. The base-isolated frames were modelled using a finite element program and those performances were evaluated in the light of the nonlinear time history analyses by six natural accelerograms compatible with seismic hazard levels of 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years. The performance of the isolated frames was assessed in terms of roof displacement, relative displacement, interstorey drift, absolute acceleration, base shear and hysteretic curve.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.3 s.43
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• pp.69-75
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• 2005

In this paper, the comparative performance of repaired RC columns using steel and CFRP is presented. Also, the effect of transverse reinforcement ratio on the behavior of the steel and the CFRP repairing is investigated. Monotonic and cyclic load tests are conducted on nine RC column specimens with different repairing strategies and transverse reinforcement ratios to compare the load-displacement curves and the hysteretic behaviors. From the tests, it is observed that both steel and CFRP jacket repairings can significantly increase the displacement ductility and the ultimate load capacity of damaged columns.